This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

VIDEO: Strategies for implementing and increasing adult vaccination

SAN DIEGO – Almost one-third of patients over the age of 65 are not receiving influenza vaccination, increasing their risk for morbidity, but simple process changes can help increase rates within a practice, according to a presenter at the ACP Annual Meeting.

“For our patients over the age of 65, mortality and morbidity each year are the highest in that group, so we’re interested in getting influenza immunization to all our patients in that group,” said John H. O’Neill, Jr., DO, MACP, from the Department of Medicine of the Cristiana Care Health System in Newark, Del.

Revising purchasing decisions can minimize the cost to the provider, while making vaccination a greater priority for the staff can increase uptake without taking significant time from the physician’s time with the patient, he said.